ON THE BALLOT FOR THE MARCH MUNICIPAL ELECTION IN THE CITY OF REDONDO BEACH, THE ISSUE OF TERM LIMITS IS PRESENTED TO THE VOTERS IN PROPOSITIONS "A" AND "B".

Hi! I'm David Serena. I was the Chairman of the most recent Charter Review Committee for the City of Redondo Beach. Term limits for the Mayor, City Council, and the School Board are a part of the City Charter. Propositions "A" and "B" are on the ballot in the March election to modify the provisions of term limits as they apply to these office. I would like to tell you about the history of term limits in Redondo Beach to help you understand the issue.

The City of Redondo Beach currently has two charter provisions that apply term limits to two classifications of elected officials. They are Article XXVI, Section 26 which applies to the Mayor and City Council and Article XVI, Section 16.7 which applies to the School Board. Both of these provisions put in place a lifetime exclusion from reelection to one of these offices, if you have served two terms in that office, whether or not those two terms are consecutive. Two terms are normally measured as eight years, but can, by definitions contained in the City Charter, be as short as six years. The life time exclusion excludes an interested person from further service forever in an office where they have already served two terms.

A lifetime exclusion from office is not a common provisions in term limits laws on any level of government. Exceptions are the President of the United States, the City Council for the City of Los Angeles, and the Mayor of the City of Torrance. Of the very few other cities in our area that have term limits, none of them have a life time exclusion from further service. Of the cities that do have term limit provisions, most of them have only a 24 month "sit out period." A "sit out period " is the time that you must be out of office before you can seek election to that office again.

After I tell you the history of term limits in Redondo Beach, you can form your own opinion on the basis for the lifetime exclusion from office that is currently in the Charter. I should tell you that the basic material for this history is contained in a report by Jerry Goddard, City Attorney for Redondo Beach, to the Redondo Beach City Council for the April 18, 2000 City Council Meeting. For more information you can get a copy of that staff report from the Redondo Beach City Clerks Office. That staff report includes copies of the newspaper articles from 1975 when this was the big issue.

Now, to the history of the issue as contained in various articles published in the local press, and as contained in official City of Redondo Beach records at the time the events were occurring. The first proposed change to the City Charter on term limits appears to have been in the spring of 1974. That is when Councilman Tony DeCou, supported by Councilmembers Lee Soloman and Paul Burke brought forward and passed a proposal for term limits on the offices of the Mayor and the City Council. These three Councilmembers were in their first term in office. The term limits provision they presented would not have been a lifetime exclusion, and there would not have been retroactive counting of terms. The Council passed the measure by a three to two vote. The two opposing votes were from Councilmembers Robert Westerfield and Rodney Neilson, each of whom had already served at least two terms in office. Mayor William Czuleger, who had served more than two terms as Mayor, vetoed that resolution. The proponents of term limits could not get the four votes necessary to over ride the Mayor's veto. In the normal course of events that would have been the end of the matter.

However, a grass roots citizen's group that supported term limits mounted an initiative campaign. The proponents of term limits garnering sufficient signatures to qualify their initiative for the ballot. At the municipal election in 1975, the term limit initiative by the group of citizens passed and became a part of the Charter.

The provisions of this initiative were different from the term limit measure submitted a year earlier by the three new councilmen. The first significant provisions not in the original proposal made the counting of "terms" for purposes of term limits retroactive rather than prospective. The passage of that initiative amounted to a recall election for the Mayor the two Councilmembers that had opposed the earlier term limit proposal. With the passage of the term limits initiative these three men were out of office. The second significant provisions not in the original proposal was to put in place a life time exclusion from holding an office that had been held for two terms.

Had the prior proposal been put into place, the Mayor and Councilmembers could have served two more full terms, and after a "sit out period" they would have been eligible to be reelected. Instead, they were out of office, and ineligible to seek that office for life.

Incidentally, the Daily Breeze on April 13, 1975 took an editorial position against that 1975 ballot provision.

After the school district unification in the early 1990's, and the addition of the School Board to the Redondo Beach City Charter, the term limits that were on the City Council and the Mayor were put in the City Charter for the School Board. They were identical to the term limits that then existed in the Charter for the Mayor and City Council. The reasoning for the use of the identical language was for consistency and uniformity of language in the Charter. I know, I Chaired the Charter Review Committee that recommended that provision.

Here we are twenty five years after the original term limits proposal with a proposal to do essentially what was originally suggested in 1974 . That was the proposal that was passed by the City Council and vetoed by the Mayor in 1974. The legal effect of these proposals as contained in Propositions "A" and "B" is very simple. If you have served two consecutive terms in the office of Mayor, City Council, or Board of Education you must "sit out" at least three years before you are eligible to seek election to that office again. Propositions "A" and "B" do nothing more or less than that.

Most observers believe that the practical effect will be to cause a two term "sit out period." The reason for that is that the incumbent has a very high rate of success in getting reelected. Thus, if you are elected to one term in office there is an excellent chance of you being in office for a second term. In many cases, term limits appears to be the only way to cause a change in personnel in an elected office.

The only difference that there will be between the current City Charter regarding term limits and Propositions "A" and "B" is the sit out time. If you want a person to be ineligible for life from seeking an office after they have served two terms in that office you will vote against Propositions "A" and "B". If you want a person to "sit out" for a time period after serving two consecutive terms, but to be eligible after the "sit out period" to be reelected to an office, you will vote for Propositions "A" and "B".

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION.